This has been a season of change for South Carroll's Mike Muller.Muller captured the Carroll County title in his weight class as a sophomore last winter, took second in the region, and finished fourth in the state.But when the cheering stopped, the main thing Muller felt was emptiness."I started getting really down on myself," said Muller. "I thought I could have done a lot better. I wanted to change a lot of things and make this year a step up." Muller changed his attitude and rededicated himself to training.

"You'd have thought they had just won the state championship" was the way that South Carroll girls basketball coach Al Skierski described the reaction of his team to defeating Westminster last Friday night, 61-58. The Cavaliers (2-11 overall, 2-4 league) have struggled this season with only nine girls on the team and a lack of height, but turned in a peak performance against the previously high-flying Owls (10-3, 3-3). Senior point guard Kim Lowry scored 22 points, including a four-point play at the end of the third quarter that sliced Westminster's 14-point halftime lead to three points.

South Carroll's Mike Muller knows about highlights and low-lights. After all, he's been involved in sports, particularly football and wrestling, for most of a dozen years.If sports teaches one lesson, it is for every winner, there's a loser. For many, the disappointments come quicker than the successes. The good ones learn to handle both equally well.Last season, the highlight -- and low-light -- for Muller's wrestling season came in a two-week span.First, he won a county title at 145 pounds, defeating Westminster's Dave Spicer, who was a defending state champion.

Seniors Kyle Burger and Mike Muller and sophomores Dan Patterson and Fran Jackson, all regional champions, and all in the Class 3A-4A portion of the meet, are among the top Carroll County entries competing in the 30th annual state wrestling tournament at Western Maryland College this weekend.Today's program for the separate Class 1A-2A and Class 3A-4A championships begins at 2: 30 p.m. with preliminaries, followed by the quarterfinals at 7: 30 p.m.The action resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow with consolations.

"You'd have thought they had just won the state championship" was the way that South Carroll girls basketball coach Al Skierski described the reaction of his team to defeating Westminster last Friday night, 61-58. The Cavaliers (2-11 overall, 2-4 league) have struggled this season with only nine girls on the team and a lack of height, but turned in a peak performance against the previously high-flying Owls (10-3, 3-3). Senior point guard Kim Lowry scored 22 points, including a four-point play at the end of the third quarter that sliced Westminster's 14-point halftime lead to three points.

Seniors Kyle Burger and Mike Muller and sophomores Dan Patterson and Fran Jackson, all regional champions, and all in the Class 3A-4A portion of the meet, are among the top Carroll County entries competing in the 30th annual state wrestling tournament at Western Maryland College this weekend.Today's program for the separate Class 1A-2A and Class 3A-4A championships begins at 2: 30 p.m. with preliminaries, followed by the quarterfinals at 7: 30 p.m.The action resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow with consolations.

South Carroll coach Peter Olson takes pride in doing his homework. He calls it "maximizing his lineup."It was evident yesterday when his Cavaliers came away with a 30-27 win over rival Westminster.Olson started his lineup shuffle at 160 pounds with his Cavaliers (6-1 overall, 1-0 in the county and Central Maryland Conference) trailing 24-19 after Westminster's Austin Lanham pinned Josh Elder at 152.During introductions before the match, Charlie Conaway came out at 160 to face Westminster's Jason Phelps.

Leroy Eyler pinned Scott Wallace at 3: 23 of their 189-pound bout as South Carroll overcame a 13-point deficit for a 34-31 upset yesterday of defending Class 1A-2A state champ Hammond.The Howard County squad, which was on an 18-match win streak, was ranked third in Maryland by the Maryland State Wrestling Association.For Hammond (1-1), also winner of 13 Howard County dual or tournament titles, the loss spoiled the debut of co-coaches Paul Di Rienzo and Scott Farrow. The duo has replaced retired Bill Smith.

Three maintained unblemished individual records, but two others were lost, and Westminster, despite going 0-for-5 in the JTC finals, retained its North region team title at Fallston yesterday.James Axel (130, 28-0) of Aberdeen; Dave Heath (135, 19-0) of Parkville; and Jeremiah Albright (heavyweight, 23-0) of Bel Air continued unbeaten, but Chris Osorio (152, 27-1) of Aberdeen and Bryant Mallory (189, 29-1) went down before John Thornton (4-0) of C. Milton Wright and Matt Kunkel (5-0) of Aberdeen, respectively.

Fran Jackson (125) and Mike Muller (152) each repeated as regional champions, and South Carroll, with four individual winners, easily captured the team crown in the annual Class 3A-4A, North tournament yesterday at Fallston High School.Jackson (24-2), a sophomore from North Carroll, and last year's county-region-state champion at 103, needed a takedown in the last 20 seconds to get by Mike Winters (26-9) of Dulaney, 5-3, and Muller (30-4), a senior from South Carroll, recovered from a 4-0 first-period deficit to stop Gary Burkhardt (31-2)

John Thornton and Matt Kunkel extended undefeated streaks and South Carroll, with four individual winners, easily captured the team crown in the annual Class 3A-4A, North Region championships yesterday at Fallston High School.Thornton, a C. Milton Wright senior, improved to 32-0, beating Shane Farmer of Aberdeen in the final, 11-2. Aberdeen senior Kunkel moved to 27-0, taking the title with a 7-3 conquest of South Carroll's Anton Enrique.South Carroll got championships from Kellen Weber (103)

Four returning champions repeated, and South Carroll earned its first team title at the 30th county championships at Westminster yesterday.For seniors Kyle Burger (135) of Westminster and Mike Muller (152) of South Carroll, it marked third successive titles, but senior Chris Reiter of Westminster, a two-time champion, was denied a third by North Carroll's Fran Jackson (125).Jackson, a 4-1 winner, now has one leg up on his bid for a second straight county-regional-state championship streak.

It will be Damascus-South Carroll and Calvert-Arundel in the semifinals in the state Class 3A-4A dual-meet championships at Damascus High in northern Montgomery County tomorrow.The Class 1A-2A pairings, which will follow the Class 3A-4A matches, will be Northern-Garrett vs. Overlea and Kent County vs. Hammond. Both championship events are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.South Carroll (16-0) is expected to send out the same lineup that captured the North crown Wednesday by whipping Eastern Tech and North Carroll with the loss of only three bouts.

Leroy Eyler pinned Scott Wallace at 3: 23 of their 189-pound bout as South Carroll overcame a 13-point deficit for a 34-31 upset yesterday of defending Class 1A-2A state champ Hammond.The Howard County squad, which was on an 18-match win streak, was ranked third in Maryland by the Maryland State Wrestling Association.For Hammond (1-1), also winner of 13 Howard County dual or tournament titles, the loss spoiled the debut of co-coaches Paul Di Rienzo and Scott Farrow. The duo has replaced retired Bill Smith.

South Carroll's Mike Muller knows about highlights and low-lights. After all, he's been involved in sports, particularly football and wrestling, for most of a dozen years.If sports teaches one lesson, it is for every winner, there's a loser. For many, the disappointments come quicker than the successes. The good ones learn to handle both equally well.Last season, the highlight -- and low-light -- for Muller's wrestling season came in a two-week span.First, he won a county title at 145 pounds, defeating Westminster's Dave Spicer, who was a defending state champion.

John Thornton and Matt Kunkel extended undefeated streaks and South Carroll, with four individual winners, easily captured the team crown in the annual Class 3A-4A, North Region championships yesterday at Fallston High School.Thornton, a C. Milton Wright senior, improved to 32-0, beating Shane Farmer of Aberdeen in the final, 11-2. Aberdeen senior Kunkel moved to 27-0, taking the title with a 7-3 conquest of South Carroll's Anton Enrique.South Carroll got championships from Kellen Weber (103)

It will be Damascus-South Carroll and Calvert-Arundel in the semifinals in the state Class 3A-4A dual-meet championships at Damascus High in northern Montgomery County tomorrow.The Class 1A-2A pairings, which will follow the Class 3A-4A matches, will be Northern-Garrett vs. Overlea and Kent County vs. Hammond. Both championship events are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.South Carroll (16-0) is expected to send out the same lineup that captured the North crown Wednesday by whipping Eastern Tech and North Carroll with the loss of only three bouts.

Three maintained unblemished individual records, but two others were lost, and Westminster, despite going 0-for-5 in the JTC finals, retained its North region team title at Fallston yesterday.James Axel (130, 28-0) of Aberdeen; Dave Heath (135, 19-0) of Parkville; and Jeremiah Albright (heavyweight, 23-0) of Bel Air continued unbeaten, but Chris Osorio (152, 27-1) of Aberdeen and Bryant Mallory (189, 29-1) went down before John Thornton (4-0) of C. Milton Wright and Matt Kunkel (5-0) of Aberdeen, respectively.